MarketingInsideOut.com

After I downloaded the Joost beta a few weeks ago and watched some of the programming, I read several interesting articles about this Internet television service that was developed by the folks who brought us Skype. It’s pretty slick. Simple and easy to use.

It’s been in beta for several months and there’s been some chatter and question about its commercial viability. From my experience with it, I could envision some exciting possibilities to truly integrate rather interrupt with advertising and promotional messages. I was curious to see what the first execution would be and what advertisers would jump on board first.

In a story in today’s New York Times, both were answered. It looks like Coke, Nike, P&G, United Airlines, Microsoft, Sony, Unilever, Purina, HP, Intel, Motorola, Taco Bell and the Army are among the 32 pioneers in a three month advertising trial.

While some of the advertising will resemble the typical :30 spot, others are planning to experiment with ways that will take advantage of the true interactive qualities of the web by using contextual units dubbed hand-raisers. These small boxes will appear as the show is running and viewers who interact with the unit will see an overlay of content created for the advertiser. United could buy one of these hand-raisers during one of the National Geographic travel programs and enable people to book right on the spot.

Additionally Joost users will be encouraged to provide info about themselves and their interests which will enable advertisers to steer their ads to individual Joost viewers eliminating waste. You can get right to the people that are interested and not annoy those that are not.

It’s like DRTV on steroids.

Rumor has it they will begin public broadcasting next Tuesday, but Joost has not confirmed that start date — saying only that the introduction would occur sometime this spring.

It you haven’t already, check it out. Since it’s still in beta you need an invite from a current user to download it. If you want to try it, email me and I’ll send you one.

It’s been three weeks since I’ve written. Just too many other priorities that demanded full time attention day and night, but hopefully the sand is starting to settle and I can get back to some semblance of a normal schedule.

I missed writing. But what I discovered I missed most…was forcing myself to take some time every day to step back a bit from the daily grind and learn something new or analyze what this or that might mean for marketing.

It’s amazing how much changes so quickly. At the end of March it really looked like Microsoft would buy DoubleClick. But by mid April Google announced its $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick. That’s a chunk of change. Talk about creating an even stronger powerhouse. It’s cool to think of being able to see reports for search, display and rich-media banners, and any click-based media vehicles (such as newsletters, text links, etc.) all in one place.

Yet the ever larger reach, depth, breadth and overall hold of Google makes me a bit nervous. And it sounds like consumer and privacy groups are asking the Federal Trade Commission to probe the privacy implications of Google’s deal for DoubleClick. The Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Center for Digital Democracy and a coalition of state public-interest groups said Google’s collection of consumers’ search information violates FTC fairness requirements and that combining it with DoubleClick’s tracking information is an invasion of a consumer’s privacy. So apparently I’m not the only one feeling nervous.

Other things that I found interesting…

Last month there were reports, but I guess it’s official now. Nike moved some of it’s business from Wieden & Kennedy to Crispin. It sounds like its the creative work for the running-shoe business, as well as the Nike Plus. Pretty sad…I always felt Wieden’s work for Nike was exceptional and I admired the long-lived relationship. But at least they are not out altogether.

Sounds like the fumble of the month went to Blackberry. You would think a company that pretty much started the rapid-fire messaging game would have done a much better job of letting its 8 million customers know about something as big as a RIM shutdown.

In the “not the least bit surprising” category…ABC wins the clutter award. That’s why I TIVO Grey’s Anatomy. ABC was the leader of MindShare’s annual clutter report, which says the alphabet network logged 15 minutes and 38 seconds in total non-program minutes per hour in 2006.

Rosie O’Donnel plans to leave The View. Contract problems. Anyone surprised? I rarely saw the show, but admit it was fun to watch Rosie vs the classy Barbara Walters.

I missed a lot, so I best get busy in my quest to catch up.

Maker of the popular BlackBerry device, Research in Motion is planning on launching a version of its software to run on Windows Mobile 6.0. By toggling between the operating systems users will have access to applications such as email, instant messenger, address book, and calendar. This move could greatly broaden the use of the BlackBerry network by adding a whole new group of devices. This would increase their ability to become a larger mobile web portal and a bigger target for mobile advertisers.

A study released last week by Arbitron and Telephia, found that an ad-supported model is most attractive when it comes to getting users to consume mobile content. For marketers anxious to get their ad messages on the third screen, the study was one of the first where consumers indicated they were interested in advertising on their mobile phones in exchange for free mobile content.

“There is an opportunity for wireless providers, programmers and marketers to develop an advertising model for mobile audio,” said Wayman Leung, senior product manager, Telephia. “Most current mobile audio users prefer the ad-supported model over paying a subscription fee. And this group is a very attractive demographic for advertisers to target as it’s comprised mainly of affluent, tech-savvy early adopters.”